Proposals

Statement

Every law, and every great landmark in our history starts with an idea.

Laws, like anything, require sustained effort to be brought to realization. Legislators don't have the privilege of acting unilaterally, but must first use reason to persuade their colleagues to support their ideas.

I'd like to tell you about some of my ideas--about the bills I have introduced this Congress, and what they would do.

Two of my bills from this Congress are now law. They passed both Houses of Congress without opposition, combined into one legislative package. Together, this new law will accomplishing two major goals: speeding up the new drug approval process for the millions of sick Americans awaiting treatment, and putting American companies manufacturing drug products that contain controlled substances in the U.S. on an equal playing field with foreign manufacturers, thus keeping manufacturing jobs from going overseas. With our country facing record-high health care costs, thousands of rare diseases without cures, and millions more looking for good manufacturing jobs, it is no surprise that both parties were able to unite around this common sense new law.

I have worked to let people keep more of their own money by reducing government waste. Under current law, there is a self-perpetuating slush fund worth $2 billion per year controlled by the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. There is neither limit nor guidance nor clear purpose in law right now on how the $2 billion put in the fund annually ought to be spent: the Secretary is completely unaccountable in the use of these funds. I have introduced legislation to give the $2 billion back to the taxpayers and get rid of the slush fund altogether.

I have continued to work to stop Pennsylvania jobs from going overseas. Right now, the federal government uses taxpayer dollars to drive up the cost of sugar in order to benefit a few thousand sugar growers. It's unfair to taxpayers, and it's unfair to hard-working Pennsylvanians who are trying to keep their jobs. I've been working to change this, and 50 of my colleagues are supporting my Sugar Reform Act, which would set a limit on these federal payments, to stop them from going to the wealthiest of growers. They don't need the money: the taxpayer does.

As Chairman of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, I have continued my work to advocate on behalf of oppressed minority groups around the world, especially prisoners of conscience. I have introduced legislation to allow the State Department to sanction not just other governments, but non-state actors as well. Some of the worst violations of human rights in the world today are done by non-state organizations like Boko Haram. My bill would also make some institutional changes at the State Department to prioritize international religious freedom efforts. I am hopeful that these new authorities will equip the State Department to help vulnerable people in countries like Nigeria.

I have introduced two pieces of legislation to improve the treatment of horses. Chester County and rural Pennsylvania more generally is home to some of the finest horses in the country. Pennsylvanians know firsthand the majestic beauty and power of these animals, and we are shocked by their treatment at the hands of the horse racing industry. By some estimates, two dozen horses are euthanized each week during racing season, many because they are running while injured or sick. One of my bills would repeal the horse racing industry's interstate gambling privileges outright in an effort to encourage them to reform. The other bill would abolish the overwhelmingly widespread use of doping on race day and ban the worst offenders from the sport for life.

These are just seven of the 22 pieces of legislation I have introduced this Congress, but they give an overview of the areas in which I have tried to make progress: health care reform, saving taxpayers money, and protecting the vulnerable.

There are still nine months to go in this Congress. I will continue to work to move these initiatives into law, and I will continue to introduce legislation into Congress that promotes the common good and brings about a more just system for the American people.

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